Ron Burkle, Billionaire Investor, Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy National Enquirer

The owners of The National Enquirer are in talks to sell the tabloid to the California billionaire Ronald W. Burkle, according to two people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

An acquisition of The Enquirer by Mr. Burkle, a Democratic donor with close ties to President Bill Clinton, could raise eyebrows in Washington given President Trump’s fondness for the tabloid, which he has praised on Twitter.

While representatives of The Enquirer, which is owned by American Media Inc., are deep in their negotiations with Mr. Burkle, the deal could still fall apart, according to the two people with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks. Representatives for Mr. Burkle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Burkle specializes in buying distressed companies and selling them at a profit or rebuilding them to increase their value. He made his initial fortune buying and selling supermarkets in his home state. In 1999, he helped buy the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey franchise out of bankruptcy. The team has won three Stanley Cup championships since then.

I'm not saying this is why Burkle would be interested, but why else would he want that old gossip rag? Surely it appeals more to the conspiracy theorists. I'd bet those who think that way are much more aligned with that guy in the White House.

I'm not saying this is why Burkle would be interested, but why else would he want that old gossip rag? Surely it appeals more to the conspiracy theorists. I'd bet those who think that way are much more aligned with that guy in the White House.

He may intend to shut it down. That would be sweet. Of course, icing on the cake would be for the last publication to include every single story that was bought to prevent it from being published.

"I know that human being and fish can coexist peacefully"
--- George W Bush

The possible Burkle play is fascinating, the Enquirer's IP is the center of the action. Burkle could buy it just to release all the negative Donald stories in the vaults. Love it.

Is there any way of knowing whether the vaults are still loaded with valuables?

Would Burkle be interested if they weren't.

If the vaults were still full, I would think that Bezos would be really interested in buying the Enquirer. He could leak out the vault contents, a story at a time, in the Washington Post and make himself a rich man as well as exacting a delicious revenge. (That 'rich man' is a joke, BTW.)

Ending an association between a longtime friend of President Trump and the tabloid that favored him during the 2016 election, American Media Inc. is selling the National Enquirer for $100 million to James Cohen, CEO of Hudson News.

The supermarket tabloid, along with two sister publications, will be purchased by the head of the travel retailer known for its airport newsstands, according to people familiar with the agreement.

The decision to sell came after Anthony Melchiorre, the hedge fund manager whose firm controls AMI, became disillusioned with the reporting tactics of the Enquirer, which is overseen by David Pecker, Trump’s confidant dating back many years.

AMI has been under intense pressure because of the Enquirer’s efforts to tilt the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump.

Why would a retailer buy a collection of tabloids?

In the comments, someone suggested that much of their value is the product placement space they have in supermarkets across the US. If that's the case, I doubt it was bought for the value of the "catch and kill safe," and these assets might be re-sold to someone better able to monetize them.

There's quite a lot of James Cohens, obviously, but it looks like the one who owns Hudson Media is a Democratic donor. Also spotted a donation to Cory Booker's Senate campaign.

I'm sure Donald Trump will sleep better tonight knowing this man may now own a trove of blackmail material on him.

"There's no play here. There's no angle. There's no champagne room. I'm not a miracle worker, I'm a janitor. The math on this is simple; the smaller the mess, the easier it is for me to clean up." -Michael Clayton

The only GOP donations I see are to moderate Republicans in NJ or nearby states (Arlen Specter, who was a Democrat in all but name by the time Cohen was giving to him, and it was probably for the purpose of helping Spector fend off one of Pat Toomey's primary challenges to Specter). It's pretty clear he gives money to Democrats.

"There's no play here. There's no angle. There's no champagne room. I'm not a miracle worker, I'm a janitor. The math on this is simple; the smaller the mess, the easier it is for me to clean up." -Michael Clayton

He also gave $5000 to Leadership Matters for America PAC in 2015. If I recall correctly, that was a "Stop Trump" Republican PAC.

"There's no play here. There's no angle. There's no champagne room. I'm not a miracle worker, I'm a janitor. The math on this is simple; the smaller the mess, the easier it is for me to clean up." -Michael Clayton

Would it really matter if the stories are actually contained in the vaults or not? If AMI owns the rights to the stories, as long as the people who sold their stories are still around and willing to tell their story again, can't those stories still be published? I guess AMI's former owner could have specifically excluded those story rights, but if not, may the floodgates open wide!

"I know that human being and fish can coexist peacefully"
--- George W Bush

James is the son of the founder of Hudson News, they sold out 10 years ago so he's not actively with Hudson News. He featured his house in a home online mag he owns, and seems to be a Republican, tho he's donated to both sides.

For $100M they have to believe there's a lot of valuable content. Will it be through publishing or more "catch and release"? If they're keeping Dylan on seems like we still may not be seeing the good stuff. Yet. WaPo: "Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of AMI, will remain at the company, those people said."

James is the son of the founder of Hudson News, they sold out 10 years ago so he's not actively with Hudson News. He featured his house in a home online mag he owns, and seems to be a Republican, tho he's donated to both sides.

He's buying to to put in airport newstands, because like a Trumper holding onto that wish that coal is gonna come rolling back, any day now, there are still people in the print business that think any day now people are gonna get sick of reading up to the minute coverage on their phones, tablets and laptops and go back to reading news updated once a week at best, in newsprint.

The more I learn about business the more I learn that there are a lot of very successful morons in business.

The more I learn about business the more I learn that there are a lot of very successful morons in business.

Are you successful if you take Daddy's Money and 50 years later have less than you started with when accounting for inflation? What about the millions of dollars of debt discharged in bankruptcy? I refer to Trump. I know nothing about James Cohen, but I wonder if his wealth is self-made.

By successful in this instance, I mean people who are in high corporate positions, no matter how they got there. The ones with daddy's money, the ones who had one lucky break once 20 years ago and just rode it to where they are, and the ones who I can't figure out how they tie their shoes in the morning....